The Jule G. Charney Award is the American Meteorological Society's award granted to "individuals in recognition of highly significant research or development achievement in the atmospheric or hydrologic sciences".^[1] The prize was originally known as the Second Half Century Award, and first awarded to mark to fiftieth anniversary of the society.^[2][3]

It is named after the meteorologist Jule G. Charney, who played a key role in developing weather prediction.

Recipients

Source: American Meteorological Society

• 2024 Richard Seager. For significant and innovative contributions in the attribution of past droughts and floods, and to understanding the impact of rising greenhouse gases on future hydroclimate.
• 2023 Dale Durran. For fundamental contributions to mountain meteorology through the understanding and numerical simulation of orographically modified flow.
• 2022 George Kiladis. For original, insightful contributions in understanding the codependency of tropical dynamics and convection.
• 2021 Clara Deser. For fundamental insights into the structure, genesis, and predictability of decadal variability in the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere.
• 2020 Qiang Fu. For pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of atmospheric radiative transfer and its critical linkages to climate and climate change.
• 2019 J. David Neelin. For fundamental contributions to understanding tropical climate dynamics and the impact of anthropogenic forcing on precipitation, drying, circulation, and extremes.
• 2018 Dennis P. Lettenmaier. For fundamental and visionary research on the hydrological impacts of climate change, and the pioneering development of land surface models and continental-to-global scale data sets.
• 2017 David J. Raymond. For profound insights into the interaction between atmospheric convection and the larger-scale environment.
• 2016 Wayne H. Schubert [pt]. For landmark advances in theoretical understanding of convective parameterization, marine stratocumulus, balanced atmospheric flows, and tropical cyclone intensity and structure.
• 2015 Alan Robock. For fundamental contributions toward understanding the climatic effects of stratospheric aerosols from volcanoes and other potential sources, and the role of soil moisture in climate.
• 2014 David A. Randall. For transformative research into atmospheric convection and cloud processes and their improved representation in global weather and climate models.
• 2013 R. Alan Plumb. For fundamental contributions to the understanding of geophysical fluid dynamics, stratospheric dynamics, chemical transport, and the general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans.
• 2012 Christopher S. Bretherton. For fundamental contributions to our understanding of atmospheric moist convection, particularly the discovery of mechanisms governing the transition from stratocumulus to shallow cumulus convection.
• 2011 Ronald B. Smith. For fundamental contributions to our understanding of the influence of mountains on the atmosphere through both theoretical advances and insightful observations.
• 2010 Eric F. Wood. For pioneering contributions to understanding the role of land surface heterogeneity in the coupled water and energy balance of the Earth surface.
• 2009 Warren M. Washington and Gerald A. Meehl. For outstanding collaborative contributions to modeling climate and its response to anthropogenic and natural forcings.
• 2008 Gerald R. North. For groundbreaking research on climate models, atmospheric statistics, and satellite mission development.
• 2007 Alan K. Betts. For his pioneering and sustained contributions to the understanding of the atmospheric boundary layer, cumulus convection, and land-surface-atmosphere interactions.
• 2006 Robert D. Cess. For his outstanding contributions to our understanding of the science of atmospheric radiation and climate change and the role of clouds in climate models
• 2005 Graeme Stephens. For pioneering advances in understanding and measuring radiation processes and their role in climate
• 2004 Richard Rotunno. For highly significant, scholarly contributions to understanding the dynamics that govern a wide spectrum of mesoscale phenomena and processes
• 2003 Wilfried H. Brutsaert. For fundamental and far-reaching contributions to our understanding of the linkages between Earth's atmosphere and land surface
• 2002 Roland A. Madden. For pioneering investigations of global-scale waves and of the intraseasonal oscillation
• 2001 Roger Daley. For highly significant research and development in data assimilation, modeling, and numerical weather prediction
• 2000 Kevin Edward Trenberth. For improving our understanding of the dynamics of the climate system through diagnostic analyses of its fundamental properties
• 1999 Anthony Hollingsworth. For penetrating research on four-dimensional data assimilation systems and numerical models.
• 1998 Kuo-Nan Liou. For his pioneering work in the theory and application of radiative transport and its interaction with clouds.
• 1997 Timothy N. Palmer. For fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of extended weather prediction and the understanding of climate phenomena.
• 1996 Yoshio Kurihara. For fundamental modeling research on tropical storm dynamics and a major advance in operational hurricane forecasting.
• 1995 Eugenia Kalnay. For many applications of numerical experimentation in explaining the physical processes of atmospheric dynamics and for developing improved operational numerical forecast models.
• 1994 William M. Gray. For pioneering contributions to the understanding and forecasting of tropical cyclones.
• 1993 Abraham H. Oort. For wide-ranging studies of atmospheric behavior through comprehensive analysis of global observations.
• 1992 Lance F. Bosart. For his demonstrations that valuable insights can be obtained by careful analysis of routine meteorological observations.
• 1991 Moustafa T. Chahine. For outstanding contributions to satellite sensing through better understanding of the inverse radiative transfer problem and development of its applications.
• 1991 M. Patrick McCormick. For outstanding contributions to satellite sensing through development of solar occultation instruments and for elucidation of the nature of polar stratospheric clouds.
• 1990 Peter J. Webster. For fundamental contributions to the understanding of low-frequency tropical circulations and tropical/midlatitude interactions.
• 1990 Melvin A. Shapiro. For extraordinary achievements in aircraft probing of mesoscale phenomena, and for meso- and synoptic-scale analyses of unsurpassed quality.
• 1989 Eugene M. Rasmusson. For major contributions to climate diagnostics, especially of the relationship of the Southern Oscillation to climate anomalies.
• 1988 Robert Dickinson. For outstanding contributions to our understanding of biofeedback processes.
• 1987 Richard A. Anthes. For his sustained contributions in theoretical and modeling studies related to tropical and mesoscale meteorology.
• 1986 Michia Yanai. For highly original contributions to enlarging our knowledge of the dynamics of the atmosphere, particularly in the tropics.
• 1985 Keith A. Browning for fundamental contributions to our understanding of severe convective storms, the kinematics of fronts and cyclonic storms, and the methodology of Doppler radar observations.
• 1985 Richard S. Lindzen. For incisive contributions to the theory of diverse phenomena ranging from gravitational to planetary waves in the upper and lower atmosphere.
• 1984 Peter V. Hobbs. For highly productive theoretical and field investigations of cloud physical processes, aerosol and cloud-water chemistry studies, and for his leadership in organizing and directing the CYCLES Project, which has contributed significantly toward our understanding of the mesoscale structure of midlatitude frontal systems.
• 1983 Francis P. Bretherton. For his innovative and significant contributions to our understanding of the dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans encompassing a wide variety of scales, processes, and phenomena.